In an interview with WorldNetDaily, Project 21 member Council Nedd II — the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Missionary Church — speculated that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would have remained more conservative than his former colleagues had he lived.

Bishop Nedd was critical of the black civil rights lobby for becoming overtly political in the years since Dr. King’s death, and for President Obama in particular for playing the race card as a means of pushing policy. Council mentioned the promotion of special rights for homosexuals as an example of the civil rights lobby putting politics ahead of purpose.

Council said:

Gay is not the new black. There are lots of people who lived and died and suffered merely because of race.

Any individual who happens to be homosexual, they’re already covered under the law because of their color, because of their sexuality, because of various other things. It’s not a separate classification and personally I’m offended by it.

I’m offended by the politicians who caved on the issue, and I’m offended by pastors who sold out on the issue and decided, “You know what, I don’t really care what the Bible says. The black president wants me to support this so I’m going to support this.”

It’s absurd.

Commenting on how President Obama and his supporters use race as a means of pushing a political agenda, Council said:

He’s implemented or tried to implement a number of failed policies. And when it didn’t work out, he pulls the race card. I just think that’s inappropriate and I think it’s just tacky.

Contemplating a history in which Dr. King was not the victim of an assassin’s bullet, Project 21’s Nedd noted that Dr. King “was first and foremost a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ.” Comparing Dr. King to his own father — who grew up in the same era — Council thought that Dr. King “would probably be a fairly conservative individual.”

Council pointed out:

I think he would say that a major victory had been accomplished. If you think about it, the world that he lived in and the world he knew was a very segregated America. At the end of his life, there were riots in the street. They were turning water hoses and dogs on children in parts of this country and because of the advent of television, people were able to see it and were rightly appalled by what they saw.

In relation to his former colleagues, Bishop Nedd also suggested that Dr. King would have likely remained focused on spirituality rather than special interest politics. He said:

I don’t think he was necessarily interested in the political pandering that you see people like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton do. He was on a mission, and the mission was to march for civil rights. But he never gave up his calling as a minister of the gospel, and his ministry was evident in his approach that he took to try to achieve civil rights for all Americans.

To read the entire WorldNetDaily interview with Bishop Nedd, click here. TO read Project 21’s Martin Luther King Day press release, which also features a commentary from Council, click here.